The U.S. Pat. No. 4,852,047 shows an improved machine programming and control system including the utilization of a continuous, multiple-block, flowchart or charts, all or a portion of which is displayed. Each entered flowchart is executed without conversion to other languages, such that machines are controlled in accordance with the flowcharts that are displayed. Multiple flowcharts may be entered each to separately control different machines or different parts of the same machine. The flowcharts are displayed in a multiple-block presentation and a block numbering system permits rapid on-screen generation of flowcharts, editing of the flowcharts, and debugging of the flowcharts through the utilization of an interrupt. A uniquely improved debugging system, active on an execution interrupt, permits rapid value changing for selected displayed flowchart blocks and permits a single-scan program rerun for verification. Upon run-time interruption, either the number of the flowchart block being executed at the time of interruption is automatically displayed or the block is highlighted so that a flowchart or charts may be edited and corrected on-the-fly. A new formatting system, inserts a block number format entry in the object program which is the output of the compiler, which entry is skipped by Executive program during run-time execution, but which is retrievable upon a debugging cycle.
In the U.S. Pat. No. 4,956,773, using a display terminal for conversation, a module structure diagram (schemata expressive of the connectional relations among respective program modules) is created, and a processing flow diagram (a kind of processing flowchart), an internal data definition diagram (schemata for specifying the formats etc. of arguments, common data between the modules, etc.) are created for each module, the created contents being stored in a memory. Further, the schematic information items of the module structure diagram, processing flow diagram, internal data definition diagram and interface data definition diagram are read out from the memory for each module and have stereotyped sentences and symbols added thereto, to generate the individual sentences of a source program. These sentences are edited according to the rules of a language, to complete the source program. If necessary, the various diagrams are printed out and utilized as program specifications.
The U.S. Pat. No. 5,327,568 shows an apparatus for supporting development of a graphic data driven program including a data driven mechanism enabling instructions of the data driven program to be executed whenever all input data necessary for executing the instructions is available. The apparatus includes a terminal device for inputting and displaying a graphic data driven program, an input transforming section for transforming the inputted graphic data driven program into an intermediate file by referring to an instruction information data base, a wiring table transforming section for transforming the inputted graphic data driven program into a wiring table of instructions expressed in text which is independent of a target machine by referring to the intermediate file, a compile section for transforming the wiring table into an instruction template described with a language depending on the target machine, an instruction execution section for executing the instruction template, an instruction execution displaying section for displaying results of executing the instruction template superposed on the displayed graphic data driven program, and an instruction information tracing section for comparing actual results of execution the instruction template stored in a traced information file with correct results of executing the instruction template stored in a correct data base.